Saint Lucy’s life and legacy offer enduring lessons that resonate deeply in our contemporary violence and uncertainties. Lucia of Syracuse’s hagiography is an inversion of an archetypal hero’s journey: where the hero wins by overcoming power, the martyr triumphs through sacrifice. Lucia’s life serves as a reminder that resilience, kindness, and unwavering commitment to justice … Continue reading
What has the Gospel of John to do with Christmas? Last weekend I checked in for a three-day time-out at my local monastery to prepare for Christmas. The countdown to Christmas is on and for many, the Advent season is one of the most beautiful in the year. But! Have we ever realized, that this … Continue reading
Recently I attended a catholic retreat in a Benedictine mountain monastery. The theme was: The wolf in us. We discussed the archetypes and myths of the wolf, a topic I had explored in great length before, their archetypes here and here. The point was raised, that the wolf represents greed, one of the seven deadly sins. What … Continue reading
Charismatic Christian (Whitsun) movements have been a huge challenge for the Roman-Catholic church in Africa, South America and India largely ignored by Europe’s clerical mainstream. I was first made aware of this by Philip Jenkins “The Next Christendom”. He gives not an entirely optimistic analysis but a profoundly helpful up-to-date eye opener. To me the election of … Continue reading
Most Christians will follow the lead of the new elected Pope in Rome and celebrate Easter in four weeks. This article will try to summarise the narrative of Jesus’ Passion (the period between Easter and Ascension) based on some Gnostic writings. We will particularly view the 1500 year old scripts of the Nag Hammadi library discovered in Egypt in 1945 and show … Continue reading